Table of Contents

What I Know................................................................................... ..........................1

What’s In...................................................................................................................2
What’s More..............................................................................................................3
What I Have Learned.............................................................................................3-4
What I Can Do........................................................................................................4-5
Assessment..............................................................................................................6
Additional Activities..............................................................................................7-8
 ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC & PROFESSIONAL
PURPOSES

What I Know
PRE-TEST 10/10
Directions: Read and analyze the statements below. Write TRUE if
the statement is correct and FALSE if it is incorrect. Write your
answers on a separate sheet of paper.

F 1. Biographical criticism posits that every literary work is the

D
product of its time and its world.
T 2. Formalism examines texts out of the context of their time
period, social setting, and author’s background.
F 3. Marxist criticism focuses on the act of reading and how it
affects readers’ perceptions of a text.

A
T 4. Historical criticism examines how literary texts reflect the
ideas, beliefs, and attitudes of the time in which they were
created.
T 5. Biographical criticism states that understanding an

Y
author’s background can help readers interpret a text.
T 6. Marxist criticism focuses understanding how power,
politics, and money play a role in arts, texts, movies, etc..
F 7. Formalism reveals how aspects of our culture are
patriarchal, i.e., how our culture views men as superior
and women as inferior.
F 8. Feminism emphasizes on the form or structure of an
object, and elements of a written work to determine its

4
underlying meaning.
T 9. Reader-response criticism argues that the meaning of a
text is dependent upon the reader’s response to it.
F 10. Historical criticism emphasizes the importance of the
author/artist’s life and background into account when
analyzing a text or an object.
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 LESSON 6
WRITING A BALANCED CRITIQUE PAPER

What’s In
Let us recall your knowledge about the previous lesson and try to link it to our
new topic by answering the short drill below.
Directions: Read the paragraph then fill in the blanks the needed ideas to complete
the outline that follow.
What makes an effective leader? To be sure, no one characteristic or trait
defines an effective leader. It is true, however, that effective leaders get the most out
of employees or group members by holding them to very high standards or
expectations. Setting high standards increases productivity because people tend to
live up to the expectations set for them by superiors. This is an example of the
Pygmalion effect, which works in a subtle, often unconscious way. When a
managerial leader believes that a group member will succeed, the manager
communicates this belief without realizing that he or she is doing so. Conversely,
when a leader expects a group member to fail, that person will not usually disappoint
the manager. The manager’s expectation of success or failure becomes a self-
fulfilling prophecy. Thus it pays for a manager to expect the best from employees.

I. Main Idea: Effective leaders encourage a high level of performance by expecting

th
best from their employees.
A. Subsidiary idea #1: No one characteristic or trait defines an effective leader.
B. Subsidiary idea #2: People are likely to live up to manager’s or superior’s
expectations.
C. Subsidiary idea #3: “Pygmalion effect” i.e. expect the best you’ll get.
D. Subsidiary idea #4: Setting high standards increases productivity.
E. Subsidiary idea #5: Leaders who expects the best gets high achievement
and vice versa.
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What’s More
Directions: Identify the critical approach that you think can be best used in the
following scenarios and write a short explanation for choosing the given approach.
Write your answers in a separate sheet of paper.
1. Carlos was assigned to write a critique on The Weeping Woman(painting) by
Pablo Picasso. What critical approach can be best used by Carlos? Explain your
answer.
Formalism because it needed to emphasize the form of a literary work to
determine its meaning.
2. Mary evaluated the Women Empowerment Movement that has been trending in
social media sites lately. What critical approach can be best used by Mary? Explain
your answer.
Feminism because she emphasized the roles, positions, and influences of women
within literary texts.
3. June was told to write a critique on the movie “The Lion King”. What critical
approach can be best used by June? Explain your answer.
Marxist Criticism because it needs to focus on how class, power, race and economic
status affect the content and theme of a certain work.

What I Have Learned

Directions: Summarize what you have learned by completing the table below with
what you understood from the lesson. Write your answers in a separate sheet of
paper.
APPROACHES IN HOW IT IS DONE (TECHNIQUE
LITERARY WHAT IT IS (DEFINITION)
CRITICISM IN WRITING)
1. Formalism Emphasizes the form of a
Focus on the elements,
literary work to determine its
structure and principles that
meaning, focusing on literary
govern a certain text, artworks,
elements and how they work
movie, book, poems, etc.
to create meaning.
2. Biographical Emphasizes the importance of Focus on the life and
Criticism the author’s life and background of the writer/artist
background into account when and connect it to the subject of
analyzing a text. your review or critic.
 3. Historical Focus on the era and significant
Posits that every literary work
Criticism events that happened during
is the product of its time and
the time the text/ movie/ book/
its world.
art/ poem was produced.
4. Marxist Emphasizes on how power, Page 3
Focus on how class, power,
Criticism politics, and money play a role
race and economic status affect
in literary texts and amongst
the content and theme of a
literary societies and
certain work.
characters
5. Feminism Focus on how women are
Emphasizes on the roles,
portrayed in a certain literary
positions, and influences of
work, in arts, in commercials, in
women within literary texts.
movie, etc.
6. Reader- Focus on the meaning you
response created while reading a text,
criticism Emphasizes that the meaning watching a movie or looking at
of a text is dependent upon a certain object. It focuses on
the reader’s response to it. your personal connection with
and understanding of the
subject of your review.

What I Can Do
Directions: Choose one from the given topics below. Gather information about your
chosen topic, then write a 300-500 word critique using the most appropriate critical
approach. Write your answer in a separate sheet of paper.
1. On the government’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic
2. Movie: Goyo Ang Batang Heneral
3. Ang Huling El Bimbo: The Hit Musical
4. The Digital Divide: The Challenge of Technology and Equity
5. President Duterte’s SONA (July 27, 2020)

You will be assessed using the rubric below.

Content (20%)
Organization (10%)
Language (10%)
Mechanics (10%)
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Ang Huling El Bimbo: The Hit Musical

The musical was written and directed by two Filipino men: actor-playwright
Dingdong Novenario, and director and choreographer Dexter Martinez Santos. Such
male perspective manifests in the show’s main focus on the lives of three male
friends: Emman, Anthony, and Hector. Joy, a survivor of rape, is relegated to a
supporting role in the men’s journey.
The story unfolds and we see that the relationships of the characters
dramatically change after the incident, both individually and as a group. Joy is left to
deal with the rape on her own. The message of this part of the narrative, to me, is
quite clear: silence is oppressive. It exposes how ill-equipped people are when faced
with an emergency situation of sexual assault. It criticizes men’s silence and
complicity in violence. Silence is oppressive because it privileges order and harmony
over someone’s trauma. Being actively shut out from her friend’s lives makes Joy
experience a second level of violence. In my view, the show deserves some credit
for featuring the reality of how sexual violence and silencing operate.
It is important to note that the three male characters are portrayed as “good
guys.” Prior to the rape, all three have healthy relationships with Joy. They are not
especially “misogynistic” towards her. But as pointed out earlier, their silence on
Joy’s experience makes them complicit in violence against women. On this note, the
musical somehow challenges the norm that only violent men commit violence. Good
guys can be guilty of that as well.
A key theme in the musical is rape and sexual violence, and how male
characters react to a life-changing incident. The narrative is highly gendered, which
is probably the reason why the musical was received with much controversy.
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Assessment
Post Test
Directions: Put a (✓) on the space before the number if the statement10/10 can help
make a good review/reaction paper/ critique; an (x) if it does not. Write your answers
in a separate sheet of paper.

 1. A good review/reaction paper/critique must contain proper citation of other

peop. le’s work or idea.
 2A good review/reaction paper/critique should also include other literature to
establish reliability and intertextuality.
 3. A good review/reaction paper/critique must only be written using technical
words to ensure one’s credibility as a writer.
 4. A good review/reaction paper/critique should be able to connect with the
readers and the world.
 5. A good review/reaction paper/critique should be grounded with theories,
approaches, principles, etc. to avoid biases and inconsistencies in one’s work.
 6. A good review/reaction paper/critique should include a thesis statement.
 7. A good review/reaction paper/critique revolves only around one’s strong
emotion about the subject.
 8. A good review/reaction paper/critique must include concrete examples of
one’s key points.
 9. A good review/reaction paper/critique does not need a summary or
background of the subject.
 10. A good review/reaction paper/critique should be fair and objective.

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Additional Activities
Directions: Below are examples of a piece of artworks, take a look at these works,
study, analyze, and write a balanced/objective review considering the elements
discussed. Write your review in paragraph form in a separate sheet of paper.

A. One of the Filipino cultures that we continuously preserved and practiced is

“Bayanihan”. It is an expression of spirit of communal unity or effort to achieve a
particular objective.

The art shows a trait that streams down on Filipino blood, willingness to help
our fellow compatriot in times of need at any situation without expecting something in
return. Bayanihan as what
Image shows the essence of what bayanihan really looks like in the early
days. The picture has the right mix and shade of colors, setting and the elements
which give an almost realistic feel of what bayanihan looks like in a painting. I love
how the painter inserted an extra people and an animal to give an exact view of the
early days.
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B. ‘The Last Supper’ of Leonardo da Vinci is considered to be undoubtedly a
masterpiece. Debates have ensued, though, concerning the interpretation of this
piece of art. Some even claim that Leonardo da Vinci tried to transfer a secret
message to us through it. What is portrayed in this painting that has attracted and
enchanted such a great amount of viewers?

The subject of the Last Supper depicts a famous scene from Holy Thursday,
in which Jesus and his Apostles sharing a final meal before his death and
resurrection. During the dinner, Jesus revealed that one of his disciples would betray
him and hand him over to the authorities for execution. It was Judas, who Da Vinchi
depicts as spilling salt on the table, as part of some Renaissance pun.

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